Queen Latifah Calls a Grand Jersey City Victorian Home on Her New Show ‘The Equalizer’

Like most Americans, I spent this past Sunday evening glued to the television. My fixation was not on the Super Bowl, though, but the premiere of Queen Latifah’s new CBS show, “The Equalizer,” which debuted in the highly coveted timeslot following the big game. (For those who missed it, the episode is also currently available to stream for free via Amazon Prime.) The hour-long procedural is a fresh take on the popular 1980s Edward Woodward series of the same name, as well as the Denzel Washington movie spinoffs from 2014 and 2018. This version centers around ex-CIA operative/single mom Robyn McCall (Latifah), who, after growing disillusioned with “The Company,” decides to enact her own brand of vigilante justice on the streets of New York.

The series is not only set in NYC and its environs but filmed there, as well. Local spots featured in the pilot include The Classic Diner at 117-33 Myrtle Ave. in Queens and Deon’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park at 3059 W. 12th St. in Brooklyn. New Jersey native Latifah, who serves as an executive producer on the show, also gave several spots in her home state a leading role. 

Robyn takes her daughter, Delilah (Laya DeLeon Hayes), dress shopping on the 500 block of Jersey Ave. in Jersey City and later stakes out some suspects at a former Fabricolor factory at 24-½ Van Houten St. in Paterson. The large Victorian home where Robyn lives with Delilah and her aunt Viola ‘Vi’ Marsette (Lorraine Toussaint) can be found in the Garden State, as well. 

One look at its elaborate façade, namely the carved arched window of the third-floor gable,  and I was smitten! Thankfully, the place wasn’t hard to track down. 

A quick search of “The Equalizer” and “filming” brought up a link to an NJ.com article from November 20, 2020, which noted that the series was set to shoot the following day on Gifford Ave. between John F. Kennedy Blvd. and Bergen Ave. in Jersey City. A look at the short tree-lined block via Google Street View led me right to the McCall home standing in all of its glory at 50 Gifford Ave.

For more Dirt on Queen Latifah’s house from “The Equalizer,” head over to the gallery.